Production:  North 6 - Cynthia Bechet

Lifestyle Photographer: Dominick Sheldon

Still life Photographer: William Abranowicz

Client: Old Navy

Location: Birdman Inc -  Napa, CA

This past summer temperatures in Napa Valley were regularly hitting the 90's. When we were asked to find a nice rustic barn for Old Navy's winter catalog to shoot in early September, we thought the Lake Tahoe region would be a great fit. But the location our client chose was in Napa, and it was in the 90's on our shoot days! But that is no problem for the production world... we just make it snow when and where we need it to. We worked closely with Cynthia Bechet at North 6 prepping for the two day shoot providing location scouting, pre-pro support and location management. Snow effects were provided by Snow Business and the results were fantastic! Nothing quite like getting ready for the holidays in early September! Have a look at some of the photos the two photography teams captured. Happy Holidays to All!

FINAL IMAGES FROM THE OLD NAVY WEBSITE

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES

Production: John, Kwiecien -  Roe Photo

Photographer:  John Roe -  Roe Photo

Client:  Buick

Location:  Birdman Inc - Northern, CA

June 2015 we worked with the Roe Photo team on project for Buick. Over 8 days we shoot the entire Buick lineup of 2016 vehicles for their brochures. This was a major project that had us scouting in Lake Tahoe, along the stunning Northern California Coast, Berkeley, San Francisco and a few private homes in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Check out the final results along with a few of our scouting images from this project!

THE 2016 BUICK LINEUP

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGE

2016 BUICK ENCLAVE

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES

2016 BUICK LESABRE

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES

2016 BUICK VERANO

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES

2016 BUICK REGAL

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES

Production: John, Kwiecien, Roe Photo

Photographer: John Roe, Roe Photo

Client: Ford F-150

Location: Birdman Inc - Northern, Ca

In the early winter of 2014 we teamed up with Roe Photo on yet another great automotive shoot. This time we were shooting a comprehensive campaign for the new all aluminum body Ford F-150. No CGI on this project, all old school with the actual vehicles on set. Over an 8 day period we shot the trucks at a boat launch, on a bridge, at a beautiful horse ranch, two major construction sites, a residential construction project and covered a 12,500 acre vineyard ranch in the coastal mountains.We had rain when we needed it which made for some amazing running shots through puddles under the maze of freeways in Oakland! Then the sun came out when we needed sunshine... We worked hard gaining access to one of the most impressive construction sites in San Francisco; The Transbay Terminal. Working on this multi story, four block long complex structure with a cavernous underground train terminal is a once in a lifetime opportunity.Below are some images John Roe captured for the campaign that is still being rolled out along with some of our scouting images. Challenging projects like this tend to have great results, the team that worked on this project was top notch and the final product is no exception.

Final Ad - Transbay Terminal

Scouting - Transbay Terminal

Final Ad - Under the Oakland Maze

Scouting - Under the Oakland Maze

Final Ad - Sonoma County Bridge and Roads

Scouting - Sonoma County Bridge

Final Ad - Vineyard Ranch Property

Scouting - Vineyard Ranch

Production:  Creative Chaos, Inc.

Photographer: Lachlan Bailey  -  Men and Women

Photographer: Benny Horne - Divided and Kids

Client: H&M

Agency: Wednesday

Local Production: Caribbean Crews

Location: Birdman Inc - Antigua, West Indies

Here are some more images captured in Antigua that are now on the H&M website! You will also see the really cool TV commercial below that was partially shot on the island while we were working there. To find out more, see our previous  post about our adventure in Antigua!

The TV commercial also filmed while we were on the island:

Production:  Creative Chaos, Inc.

Photographer: Lachlan Bailey  -  Men and Women

Photographer: Benny Horne - Divided and Kids

Client: H&M

Agency: Wednesday

Local Production: Caribbean Crews

Location: Antigua, West Indies

In December of 2014 our good friends at Creative Chaos extended another amazing opportunity to scout a destination location. This time we were headed to the Caribbean Island of Antigua in the West Indies! Our direction from Executive Producer Jenny Friedberg was to cover the entire island in 1 week, focusing on beaches... Oh, how tough life can be sometimes! Luckily we were connected with Joseph ("J") Rainy and Caribbean Crews. His extensive knowledge of the island and many years of experience working on productions in the Caribbean were quickly put to use. He guided us around the 108 square mile Island showing us nearly every accessible beach and interior region of the stunning country along with a few small islands off the main land. The work was challenging, the days were hot and the hours were long; but a plunge into the warm winter waters of the Caribbean Sea whenever possible made it well worth it! Matt and Jason will always have a place in their hearts for the the Island of Antigua and it's beautiful people.The following month Jason returned to Antigua to location manage the 2 week production. The location chosen for much of this work was a stunning remote beach only accessible by four wheel drive trucks. This is where J Rainey's wealth of experience on the island really came into play... Under his direction, the local crew he assembled made quick work of clearing brush and building a tent city for production complete with restrooms and power! No cell service, but no one was complaining about that. We just immersed ourselves into the clear warm waters rather than into our mobile devices.Photographer Lachlan Bailey shot the men and women over the first several days of production. The Women models included Natasha Poly, Joan Smalls Rodriguez, Adriana Lima and Doutzen Kroes. Working with talent of this caliber in a remote location was an experience I'll never forget! The TV commercial was shot while Jason took a 2 day "break" gearing up for the divided and kids shoots. Benny Horne arrived to shoot the younger models and we had an absolute blast playing, I mean working on the beach! Have a look at the final images below along with some of our scouting images. We are available anytime to return to the Caribbean for your scouting needs!

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES:

Final Ads - Women

Final Ads - Men

BIRDMAN SCOUTING IMAGES:

Final Ads - Divided

Final Ads - Kids

Producer: Jenny Friedberg, Creative Chaos, Inc.

Photographer: Glen Luchford

Client: Cole Haan

Agency: Wednesday

Location: Sun Valley, ID

This past spring we were asked if we had any prior experience scouting in Sun Valley, ID. The answer at the time was no. But that all changed in April of this year! Our good friends at Creative Chaos awarded us the opportunity to make several trips to the area to scout for a Cole Haan fall campaign featuring Dree Hemingway. Dree is the great granddaughter of Earnest Hemingway, her family has ties to the region and she grew up in the Sun Valley area. The scouting trips and shoot were a lot of work but really fun! The scouting mission was challenging as the seasons changed, but in the end we were able to  find exactly what the art directions called for. Including a late 60's Ford Bronco! Have a look at the results, they speak for themselves. Absolutely beautiful!

Here is what Dree had to say about returning to Sun Valley for the shoot.

Here are our scouting images next to Glen’s final images

Here are a few more shots from the campaign:

NYC Billboard

In the window of their store in Carmel, CA

Cole Haan Fall 2014 Direct Mail

2014 has been a very busy year for Birdman! So busy that we haven't posted on this blog since January and our location library now contains nearly 650,000 images! We hope you have a moment to stop by our Facebook page to have a look at some of the locations we've visited. Clink the Facebook icon at the bottom of this post to go to our page and view our complete 2014 scouting journal as well as the 2013 and 2012 journals.

Producer: Vann Friesen, Zephyr Photo Productions, Inc

Director: Tyler Gourley

Client: Subaru

Agency: Carmichael Lynch

Location: Private Dirt or Gravel and Paved Roads in Northern California

In the summer of 2013 we were asked to find private roads for an NDA car project. Producer Vann Friesen of Zephyr Productions was in search of paved and dirt or gravel roads for a couple of Subaru models yet to be seen by the general public. Luckily, Marin and Sonoma counties have some beautiful and expansive ranch lands. Over the years we have developed really strong relationships with these types of properties. A shoot like this is not right for every location. In the production world, we refer to the style of driving seen in these commercials as "spirited driving." We were able to secure 2 properties where the vehicles could perform to their maximum capacities both on and off road. As car enthusiasts, Matt and I are always excited about car shoots, especially when "spirited driving" is involved! Have a look at these 2 exhilarating Subaru commercials and some of our scouting images from this project!

SUBARU STI COMMERCIAL (CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW THE VIDEO)

SCOUTING IMAGES

SUBARU WRX COMMERCIAL (CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW THE VIDEO)

SCOUTING IMAGES

Producer:  Gyorgi Sapojnikoff, Related Production Inc

Client:  AT&T International Roaming

Photographer:  Markuu

Agency:  BBDO

Location:  China, Texas

In November of 2012 we were asked to go to China! Who wouldn't jump at the opportunity to go to Texas? Texas you ask? That's right, the town of China, Tx is where we headed. We did not go to China to scout, although Gyorgi and Markuu did head to Shanghai to complete the layout.Gyorgi at Related Production has been working with Birdman for many years and he always presents us with exciting scouting challenges! This was no exception... China, Tx is a small rural town roughly 70 miles east of Houston, Tx. Have a look at the final ad below to see why this town was chosen for AT&T's International Roaming campaign. I came across this final ad while scouting the international terminal at SFO earlier this week. We are very proud of this work and are honored that Related Production continues to trust us with their scouting projects.We love to travel! And although the San Francisco Bay Area is our home, we are always willing to take our skills outside of the region and explore whatever our clients desire! 

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

We had another great year working with Roe Photo from the Detroit, MI area. For the second straight year we have collaborated on multiple projects for several General Motors badges here in the San Francisco Bay Area. This year we saw the full range from Chevrolet. From the compact Sonic to the full size Tahoe and our favorite, the brand new Corvette Stingray Convertible!Because the Roe Photo team combines location background plates and CGI's of the vehicles, we are allowed a lot of latitude with the locations we can present. The final product will often show vehicles in places that they would normally not be allowed. In some cases multiple backgrounds are combined to create a certain look the art direction calls for. Scouting for John Roe and John Kwiecien of Roe Photo is always a delightful challenge and we are excited to continue working with them in 2014! Keep an eye out for those results in the near future!Here are some samples of our scouting images along side John Roe's final images seen on the Chevy homepage.

Producer: Patrcik Van Maanen, Moxie Productions

Client: Ralph Lauren

Location: Northern California

We have had the pleasure of working with Patrick Van Maanen at Moxie Productions for many years. Our most recent project had us searching for some epic locations for Ralph Lauren. We are very proud to have been part of this beautiful and amazing work! Check out the final product below along with some of our scouting images of the locations!

SCOUTING IMAGES

This beautiful rustic, modern farmhouse in Marin County was just completed and is available for productions.

FIAT added several new models to their American lineup in 2013. We worked with producer Jina Park in October of last year to find various backdrops around San Francisco to showcase these new autos. Here is a look at the little beauties captured by photographer Dave Hill along side our scouting work.

Client: FIAT

Photographer: Dave Hill

Agency: Doner

Production: Jina Park - Seventyone Productions

Last fall we began scouting for a car client that we couldn't speak about. FP Creative out of London let us know that an embargoed Range Rover Sport was coming to the states. They chose Northern California for it's diversity in landscape and locations. Their needs spanned urban city streets, redwood forest, snowy mountains and curvy roads. We set out to Tahoe for several days in November as the first snow of the season fell. We could only hope that the right amount of snow would be on the ground for their December shoot dates. Because the vehicle had to be kept out of the public's eye, some of these were shot as plates in a secure location and the Northern California background was shot separately and dropped in. The preferred situation was to have the vehicle on set and driving on location, quite the challenge... San Francisco based producer Mary Zeeble was brought on as local producer and location manager. We are very pleased with the success of this project and the results are amazing! Here are some of photographer Greg Pajo's final images along side our scouting images.

Client: Range Rover Sport

Photographer: Greg Pajo

Agency: FP Creative

Production: Mary Zeeble - Crew You Productions

In 2011 we worked with McGuire furniture on their indoor and outdoor catalogs (On Set With McGuire furniture). To our delight, we were asked once again to source unique homes for a their 2013 books.

Those complete collection catalogs can be found here: http://mcguirefurniture.com/litreq/catalog.mcg.

Here are our favorite images from this most recent campaign.

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Robert McMillan

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Home - Wine Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Robert McMillan

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Stylish Rustic/Modern Home - Marin Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Brian Andriola

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Home - Wine Country

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Chelsea Cooper

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Victorian Home - San Francisco

Photographer: David Meredith

Stylist: Chelsea Cooper

Client: McGuire Furniture

Location: Modern Loft - San Francisco

We have the pleasure of working with photographer Erik Almas often. He is always capturing our locations in the most unique ways, creating stunning images like no other photographer. For this shoot he teamed up with Stuart Hart of The New Cruelty on a still photo project for Starwood Westin. Westin was looking to show some activities their guests can enjoy in the communities that surround their hotels.What made this project challenging was the request for a lush and full fruiting orchard in the middle of the winter. At that time of year, most fruit bearing trees are void of both leaves and fruit. After a little research (and experience with fruit trees) we focused our search on citrus. The wonderful thing about Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, is that almost everything can be grown here. So, we didn't need to go too far from our backyard to find the perfect location.Here are our scouting images along side Erik's final images. And beneath that, is the behind the scenes video of the production. We did not go to Hawaii for this one... maybe next time!

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=D8M54_7qKbQ

We sparked up a project in December of last year with photographer Eric Kiel for a new product from Swisher. The e-Swisher is a non-tobacco device that has no smoke, ash or smell that can be enjoyed in places that traditional cigarettes and cigars can not be. Like a bar or your friends house while playing poker, those are the locations we were asked to find for this shoot. Hilary Weekes of Team Kiel was great to work with and the locations matched up great for this campaign. I think Eric enjoyed shooting in San Francisco as well, this is a link to his Blog entry on the shoot here in the Bay Area. Here are some of the results form the e-Swisher website and some examples of our scouting.

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

FINAL AD - SHOT OUTSIDE THE HOUSE

FINAL ADS

SCOUTING IMAGES

It's always fun when a client involves an aircraft in their photo shoot. In June and July of 2012, we worked with Toni Bashinelli at Lockbox Productions and photographer Brian Bailey on a pharmaceutical campaign that called for a seaplane. We've built a great relationship with a local seaplane pilot that loves having his airplanes in photo shoots! They also had us searching for the perfect backdrop for the plane as well as many other locations for several additional layouts. We love working with Toni, she and the rest of the Lockbox team are among the best in the business. This was our first time working with Brian, but hope its not the last. Here are some final ads from the web, a few samples of our scouting images and a couple production stills from the 4 day shoot. If you need a seaplane for your shoot, give us a call!

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGES

PRODUCTION STILL

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

PRODUCTION STILL

FINAL AD

SCOUTING IMAGE

PRODUCTION STILL

Over the past few months we have had several clients looking for river locations for their Northern California based productions. Here is a small sample of what we found between the coast and the mountains.

Over the past year Birdman has been building a solid relationship with Roe Photo from the Detroit, MI area. Together we have completed projects for several General Motors brands here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our most recent project was completed earlier this year for Chevy the badge. Those images are now being featured on the Chevy homepage.Because the Roe Photo team combines location background plates and CGI's of the vehicles, we are allowed a lot of latitude in the locations we can present. The final product will often show vehicles in places that they would normally not be allowed. In some cases multiple backgrounds are combined to create a certain look the art direction calls for. Scouting for Roe and John Kwiecien of Roe Photo is always a delightful challenge and we are excited to be working with them!Here are some samples of our scouting images along side the final images seen on the Chevy homepage.